Hello gentlemen, when I observed Jan Oldenhuis' first type Jeep, with its washers behind the hubs, it wasn't the phenomenon as such, but the occurrence on this Jeep, which surprised me. Many - if not all - 27d/340 Land Rovers are also equipped with these little rings behind the wheels. I'm not aware of any other contemporary models with the same washers. I understand that they may reduce some friction or rubbing over there, but I don't know why the adoption of this was limited to this model only. Kind regards, Jan W.

With the above that appeared in the 153-672 Jeep (1946-1955) Topic brought to light something I had not known previously, and I could not check my original model as that one disappeared while I was away overseas decades ago. I am including Jan’s Post as it is relevant to the Land-Rover and does have a place in this Topic.

The interesting thing is that these washers are quite unique, or at least that is my understanding, not only with the Land-Rover but especially for the earlier Jeep. One then wonders why Phil Sylvester in his article on the 27d/340 Land-Rover that appeared in the April 2014 issue of MODEL COLLECTOR magazine, pages 64 - 67, did not mention this, although we should ignore that Phil omitted including a dash between Land and Rover throughout his excellent article! So too, the follow-up article in the July 2014 issue of MODEL COLLECTOR pages 70 – 73 written by Jacques (Our Jacques) Dujardin made no mention of the washers either especially with Jacque’s article concentrating on casting changes. (Yes I know these washers are not casting changes, but I am surprised that no one has mentioned this specifically before.) It is strongely suggested that the above articles be read as they are jammed with fascinating information on the Dinky Toys 27d/340 Land-Rover. Let me know if any have a problem locating the articles as I will be able to assist.

With my original Land-Rover being absent, I bought a replacement. Photographs of this model are below, and it is interesting how someone on the assembly floor made a blunder with the positioning of the washer for the off-side front wheel.

But as can be seen, she (I have yet to see a male in any other department involved in the assembling, checking and boxing of toys except in the foundry and of course, administration), was able to jam the washer into the available space, no doubt while chatting with her neighbours on the floor at the same time!

Several images of my replacement Land-Rover are included below. Wish I still had my original model, warts and all, even though it came without a box!

In closing, has any other Dinky Toys (apart from the 153a) or Dinky Supertoy received these little washers?

A quick check through that well-known website, eBay, reveals the answer to a question I neglected to ask in my first Post, "were all 340 Land-Rovers fitted with these washers?". Apparently when the model received its plastic hubs, the washers were dispensed, as shown with the images below.

This then leads us to the next question, "Were early issues with plastic hubs still fitted with washers?"

Thanks, Bruce, another step forward in information about this model. I checked the talkmodeltoys forum, and it appears that I mentioned this phenomenon in February 2006 already. Jacques replied with some very useful comments and views, but in my opinion no one succeeded in explaining yet why only THIS (and now we know also some early 153a Jeeps) Land-Rover was fitted with these rings and why this rubbing and friction was not seen as a problem on other Dinky Toys. Kind regards, Jan

Many thanks Jan for your thoughtful comments. Also for including the link to the talkmodeltoys forum. That forum had one last comment that makes some sense as to the reason washers were fitted to the 340 Land-Rover:

Posted on Thursday, June 14, 2007 - 08:07 am:

P.S The washers to wheels are present on cast wheel versions and absent for the plastic. If they are removed the tyres rub on the casting.

The tyres rubbing on the casting may have been the reason the 405 Universal Jeep was not shod with similar tyres as the Land-Rover.

When one compares both types of tyres, the possible reason is more obvious:

The section width of both tyres makes a difference combined with the type of diecast hub fitted. One can see with the last two photographs - the hubs can be seen on the Universal Jeep, but are hidden by the thickness of the tyre with the Land-Rover. On the other hand, the plastic hubs were designed differently with a different style of tyre being used which tended to have straighter walls. And I was thinking it was the hubs that caused the problem!

But this does not explain why the washers were used for some of the 153a Jeeps.